Geographic Reef Study of Andros

These dives are designed to give you an overview of the different areas of the Andros Barrier Reef. The reef is divided into many zones based on depth. Depth effects the amount of light reaching coral, which is a factor in why certain corals grow where they do. Each zones is also home to different fish and other marine creatures which live around the different corals.

The reef study dives allow you to cover a wide cross section of the reef which gives you an excellent opportunity to see and understand it's different characters. It's a chance to get the "big picture" on what makes up the reef and to understand the relative distances from our shallow sites to the edge of the wall.

For those divers that wish to really cover some territory and learn about the different zones of the coral reef, these dives are fun and educational.

Central Park

Six people maximum

running time: 10 minutes

maximum depth: 70 feet

in water time: 40 minutes

This dive begins at a shallow site named "Central Park." Here the coral is thick and healthy with few sandy areas. We will swim out to the first false wall dropping from 25 to 50 feet. Many reef fish like grouper, parrot fish, snappers and stingrays can be seen living in this area.

From 50 to 70 feet the reef slowly slopes through larger sandy areas with high standing coral and canyon ways to swim through. This is a large area leading to the second false wall which drops to 90 feet. If our air and time allows us to reach this wall, we will turn back at this point and head toward the anchor line. This dive shows the diversity of the reef from it's shallowest areas to the deeper mid level coral formations.

Jeff's Ladder

Six people maximum

running time: 10 minutes

maximum depth: 80 feet

in water time: 35 minutes

This dive begins in 45 feet of water at our site named "Jeff's Ladder." Here, we will anchor on the west side of two large sand patches. We will swim across one of the patches noting the individual pillar type coral heads growing in the sand with small tropical fishes living around them. Invertebrates like lobsters and crabs are particularly easy to spot in this area.

After crossing the sand patch we will come to the false wall which is a drop off down to 65 feet. The coral here is thick with crevices and catacombs to explore. From here, the sea floor stretches out for a short distance with larger coral heads growing in thick patches.

We will continue swimming until we reach the top of the wall at 80 feet. We will swim either north or south until we reach thirds on air, or our time limit. We will then head back up and over the wall and then back to the anchor line. With air and time permitting, we pull the anchor and drift shallower, covering a large area of the coral reef.